ABSTRACT
The UN Economic Commission for Latin America (CEPAL) has coined the phrase “lost decade” to capture the magnitude of the socioeconomic retreats suffered by the region during the 1980s. Latin America was to revamp the traditional pattern of reproduction based on primary-sector exports. The causes of the economic crisis—identified by CEPAL as the “foreign debt crisis” — are multiple and reflect external conditions as much as internal and structural factors. As Brazilian sociologist Ruy Mauro Marini points out in a provocative essay, a solution to the crisis also requires that economic reconversion take place in a broadly inclusive social and democratic context. The neoliberal strategy also involves settling accounts with protectionist policies, as well as a redefinition of the role of the state in the promotion of economic and social processes. Both the crisis of the postwar pattern of accumulation and neoliberal policies have exacerbated socioeconomic contradictions.
